26 Sep What Successful SME’s Can Teach You About Twitter Marketing
Social Media Examiner’s seventh annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, reveals that 92% of small business owners said “Social media marketing is important for my business”, of which 79% is carried out on Twitter.
Small business owners and marketers put increased exposure and traffic via social media as the top benefits, followed by gathered market insight, generated leads, improved search rankings and increased sales.
Although there is no golden rule of how to use Twitter as a marketing tool for your business, many have found a formula that benefited their business; all without spending the budget on ads, which you can learn about from social media experts.
If you have searched the web for Twitter marketing tips, then you already know it’s flooded with articles and while you thought you discovered something helpful, other social media experts contradicted everything you just learnt.
Why not follow the footsteps of established entrepreneurs (social influencers)? Observe how their marketing techniques may influence you to become a loyal and engaging follower, as well as a potential customer. This will inspire your own creativity and help you stay ahead of the competition.
My top 10 insights gathered from successful entrepreneurs!
1. Do more with less time.
Social influencers are consistent at sharing their content. They tweet 24/7 using a number of free or low cost social media management platforms to monitor and analyse all activities on Twitter, discover new leads, identify influencers and top followers, schedule tweets hourly/ daily/ weekly, and engage their audience.
Among the most common ones are: SocialBro, Hootsuite, Buffer, TweetDeck, HubSpot, Commun.ie, TweetJukeBox, and SumAll.
FavStar identifies your most popular tweets, which you can use to schedule regularly to attract more followers and increase exposure.
While these are helpful, keep in mind that “automated” tweets can’t match the social “human” interaction with your followers, which takes me to the next point.
2. Be social.
Although Twitter is a virtual community, you should connect with people as you would in real life. Add personality to your profile and show your passion. Find individuals who share your industry/ interests/ values and reach out to them. Take GENUINE interest in people, earn their trust and start building relationships. Ask questions, use their expertise and learn from them.
To make the most of Twitter chatter, Tweriod will help you find the best time to interact with your audience.
“Everyone you meet knows something you don’t”
– Bill Nye
3. What you give is what you get.
ALWAYS remember to show gratitude to those who engage with you; people like to be acknowledged. When someone follows you and retweets your content, follow them back, share their content when relevant. The majority of entrepreneurs keep a balanced ratio between followers and following; people are more likely to follow you when they believe you might follow back. If you unfollow, expect to be unfollowed!
“A person who feels appreciated
will always do more than what is expected.”
4. Call to action
Every tweet should serve a purpose; to benefit your brand. Be direct and use action words like; Please Follow, Retweet, Favour “content”, Engage in #campaigns, Download links and Visit websites. It’s a bold request but it does pay off.
(Source: DanZarrella-HubSpot)
“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.
If you don’t ask, the answer’s always no.
If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
– Nora Robert
5. Get creative with #Hashtags.
This one is HUGE! #Hashtags group all tweets related to a specific service/ product or a current trend on Twitter and make it easier to follow the chatter. They have many applications from representing your brand, marketing campaigns and value propositions to ideology… and anything you can think of.
Don’t go overboard! Tweets with 1-2 Hashtags drive 21% more engagements, while those with 3-5 can decrease it by 17% (Social Caffeine).
#1 Engaging in Hashtag trending topics gives your brand and marketing content exposure to a larger audience.
Here’s how JFK Library used a photo of J.F. Kennedy eating ice cream to contribute to one of the top trends #NationalIceCreamDay to engage with Twitter users.
If your business can only benefit from engaging with a local audience, you can tailor trending topics by changing the location.
Warning!!! Before you follow a trend make sure you understand its context. If in doubt, use #tagdef to find the definition of any popular Hashtag.
#2 While Hashtags help with following a trend, Twubs offers a single social landing page for you to communicate with your followers when you create a Branded Hashtag Page and define what it’s about.
#3 Hashtag campaign can be a part of your brand or run as a trending topic.
Pizza Pizza used #ShareTheMoment as part of their branding strategy and as an ongoing trend, attracting people to share their experience with pizza.
Marsha Wright created a Sunday trend #ThinkBigSundayWithMarsha promoting quotes about motivation, inspiration, leadership and positive thinking. Every tweet engaged in this trend is then retweeted by Marsha to over 229K followers, increasing the retweet reach, exposure, and interaction with extended network, not to mention gaining new followers.
While this trend has helped everyone who engaged in it, Marsha grew her number of followers from 100K to 229K in less than 6 months.
#4 Hashtag network. Samantha Kelly is the creator of #IrishBizParty (trending every Wednesday night), and a contributor to Irish Tech News, building a buzz around Irish SME’s, increasing brand exposure and B2B sales.
“Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
working together is success”
– Henry Ford
6. Give people something to buzz about
Controversy is an effective way to attract attention; people love sharing juicy content. Catch them talking about you and share it with your followers.
One of Dublin’s restaurants, Pitt Bro BBQ did it well.
7. Twitter lists are not just to get you organised.
First thing that comes to mind about Twitter lists is to group your followers and people you follow into categories that will enable easier access to a target audience. Yes, it’s one of the benefits.
Twitter lists are public, anyone can subscribe and stream tweets from people on this list, thus it matters how you name them. An interesting, meaningful and powerful list name can attract either people who wish to be on it or those who search for people worth following.
You can also compile a list of everyone who engaged in your Hashtag campaign, even those who don’t follow you. They all showed an interest in your activity, follow up on this lead and aim to connect with them in your next campaign.
The possibilities are endless. Learn more about How to use Twitter lists, and How to add yourself to your own Twitter lists to include your tweets in the stream of those who subscribed to one of your lists.
8. Direct Messaging
Direct messages allow engaging with potential customers or network partners in a private conversation however, DM campaigns should be used with caution. Unwanted DM’s can be reported as spam and have your account suspended.
There’s two effective ways to approach your audience.
- Slow approach: Establish a friendly relationship; show genuine interest before presenting what you offer. Example: My bio features Salsa Dancing and Nutrition among other interests. “Mr X”, first shared one of my tweets, followed with a couple of DM’s asking questions in relation to my experience with Salsa. Next, mentioned a video with a dancer reflecting on the importance of nutrition, sent me the link and asked about my opinion. In this video a young woman spoke about XY brand of nutritional supplements and their benefits to her dance career. Mr. X distributes these supplements. Clever? Yes!
From a customer’s point of view, I happily engaged in a non-threatening, friendly conversation; spoke about my passion as if I was selling the idea of dancing to Mr. X; out of curiosity I opened the video link and checked the product’s website; due to its relevance to my Twitter account, I shared the video link and mentioned @Mr.X as the author.
- Fast track DM campaign. Consider what value you can provide before approaching your audience in DM’s. Twitter certified platform SocialBro allows you create DM Campaigns targeting the right audience based on their interest, location and other set criteria. Each DM can and should be personalised, using the recipient’s name.
With this “bait & hook” marketing technique you can opt for an e-mail subscription list before proceeding to a free download. While potential customers drive traffic to your website to browse products or services, they contribute to your web search ranking.
9. Use quotes and visual content.
Have you noticed how visual content in this blog drove your attention and a few famous quotes provided you with #FoodForThought? The same principle applies to Twitter.
Tweets with visual content receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets (HubSpot), where images are shared 361% more than videos (QuickSprout).
Images and quotes are meant to complement your content. You still need to provide catchy title, quality information and links to landing pages.
10. Your profile is your business card.
Branding strategy starts with your Twitter account. It only takes a few seconds to make an impression on someone who visits your profile; make sure to catch their attention if you want them to visit your website or your store.
- Show your friendly face or a logo of the business;
- Provide all information leading to your website or Hashtag campaign.
- A Header photo can serve as a brochure with information about your products and services; make it a part of your current marketing campaign or state your highlights.
- Pin your campaigning tweet. Desktop viewers will be able to see it at the top of your tweets no matter how long ago it’s been posted.
Without a doubt social media marketing trends continue to change and what works now, may soon become less effective. However, the basic principles of social interaction remain the same. Stay up to date with social media trends, check out your competition, learn and test what works best for you, after all every business has something different to offer. Build a community, expand your professional network by asking to join you on LinkedIn, begin collaborations and let it help you grow your business. Sometimes, you can even make friends along the way, who are willing to help you.
If people like you, they’ll listen to you,
but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
– Zig Ziglar
In a nutshell:
- You don’t have to be on Twitter 24/7; use the help of social media management platforms.
- Don’t act anti-social. Communicate as you would in real life.
- Your followers don’t owe you anything, don’t take them for granted. Say Thanks.
- Call to action. Ask directly for what you wish to happen.
- Hashtags open up a whole new universe on Twitter, get creative: #brand, #network, #trend, #campaign.
- Keep it interesting; shock and WOW your followers. Create content worth sharing.
- Organise your target audience with Twitter lists.
- DM’s are to be used with caution. Tailor your DM campaign to individuals’ needs and address your value proposition.
- Images and quotes increase content sharing.
- Your Profile page is your business card; it should contain the summary of what you do.
#SocialMedia #Marketing #Startups #BusinessDevelopment
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